It all began one dark and stormy day when Raja came crashing into our lives.  Well…actually…it was Mother’s day 2 years ago and for some crazy reason we decided to go to the animal shelter.  Now I love a cute fuzzy tiny animal just as much as the next mama but I was definitely not looking to add yet another pet to our ever growing clan.  However, and this is a very big quote-unquote HOWEVER, when your completely adorable 11yr old looks at you with big puppy eyes and begs for a kitty….well let’s just say the hubs and I were suckers.

Mothers Day 2015

Do you see?! How could you resist?  Ugh….so we came home with Raja.

Quote-unquote “Innocent” Raja

Now sure she looks adorable and innocent.  She is however a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  She has thrashed our house upways and sideways. (I might possibly be quoting that phrase wrong?)  We have one other super awesome cat CiCi whom I love and adore.   CiCi was also a rescue kitty and she stepped right into our home with grace.  Although, I do think she was born straight into adulthood because we didn’t really go through the normal kitty friskies with her.  Raja on the other hand has ruined all of my kitchen table chairs and my sofas.

She also has this weird obsession problem.  She will find an object to obsess about and then the object will be all that she wants for weeks.  It consumes her!  For a while it was bottle nipples and if I had them on the drying rack she would confiscate them and rip them apart and leave them to die under the couch.  I finally had to dry them on a paper towel in the cupboard. That’s an extra $20 a month in paper towels and replacement nipples.  Then she moved on to this one black beaded necklace I have.  Every day I found this necklace somewhere in our house.  So then I hid it somewhere else on my dresser.  Nope. She still found it.  I moved it again to a different spot on my dresser and put something on top of it.  And I swear to goodness she still found it!  I finally waved the white flag and had to move it to a drawer.  And the pattern just continues on and on and on.

She also gorges herself on food as if a famine were about to strike our home and then promptly throws up…several times a week.  It’s so irritating.  Imagine stumbling to the bathroom in the middle of the night barefoot and stepping in a nice little gooey surprise between your toes.  That has happened too many times to count.

I could go on and on about the frustrations and idiosyncrasies of Raja.  The most frustrating development has been that she pees on our beds if she’s mad at us.  It started when we were watching a dog for our friend.  This dog is cute and tiny and fluffy and chose me as her companion.  However, this cute teacup doggy growled and barked every time the cats came close to me.  The mistake for me was that I didn’t defend my cats and their territory but instead basked in the adoration of this bundle of fluff.  So needless to say Raja was a little P.O.ed and once the dog went home decided to bring her revenge down on our house with a fury.  She peed on my oldest son’s rug first.  Then went to my youngest son’s tent full of stuffed animals and annihilated them with pee.  She then ended her tirade by peeing all over our bed.  These weren’t little drippings of pee….I don’t even know how it was possible for her to pee as much as she did within a 30 minute time space before we noticed what happened.  She SATURATED everything she peed on.  I’m convinced she planned it all out and started stock piling pee by drinking every ounce of water in sight.  I’m pretty sure that after peeing so much she went straight into dehydration mode.

While Raja was hiding somewhere reveling in her sweet victory I went into high alert cleaning frenzy mode.  I ripped the covers, the sheets and the mattress cover off my bed to find that it went all the way deep into my mattress.  Ugh. I rolled up my son’s carpet and tossed it outside…luckily a cheap $30 Ikea rug that was super old anyway. I then threw all my son’s stuffed animals in trash bags (2 bags full).  I dropped those off at our local Fluff ‘n Fold to wash those for us.  So now to the fun part….

How to Clean Cat Urine From A Mattress:

1. If the urine is fresh then blot up as much of the urine with paper towels, sponge or a towel.  Apply pressure to soak up the saturated pee.
2. Mix a solution of 50% water and 50% vinegar.  Pour a small amount of the solution on the soiled area.  Then proceed to blot up the solution and urine as described in step 1.
3. Repeat step 2 a couple of times if necessary (It was definitely necessary for me)
4. Cover soiled area with a generous amount of baking soda.
5. Mix 1/3 cup of hydrogen peroxide with roughly a teaspoon (long squeeze) of dishwasher detergent.  Drizzle over the baking soda and scrub it into the mattress with a tooth brush, scrub brush or your fingers.  Allow to sit for 20 minutes.  Blot the affected area again.
6. Allow the mattress to dry completely and then vacuum up the dry baking soda

And voila you have a clean mattress good as new (well almost new).

Until next time…

Huggles & A Trio Of Kisses,

Jaime